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We'll be continuing on in similar fashion as we have been through the Proverbs. We might notice we're going to be jumping around a little bit because I've grouped some of the scriptures and found within the chapter kind of more according to topic. But let's dig in here with verse number one of Proverbs 24, by words, be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them, for their heart studieth destruction and their lips talk of mischief. Now last week we were talking about not falling into the trap of envying the wicked, right? Envying those that have all the riches in this world that live the wicked lifestyle. And what we're going to add to that, and I think what this is, you know, it's easy to point out the movie stars. It's easy to look at the rock stars, look at these people who are in the limelight that have all of this wealth, right? And become envious at that. But what I see here in these verses, this is not talking about the wealthy, this is talking about the evil men. Now oftentimes the wealthy are evil men, okay? But this is saying evil men. Now evil in the Bible, it doesn't always necessarily mean sinful, in this case it does, but evil is when you're bringing harm to somebody else. When the Bible says, you know, is there not evil in the city and the Lord has not done it, right? God will oftentimes bring harm against other people. In Jonah 3, our Bible memory passage, right? The Bible says, And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had thought to do unto them. So God was going to bring evil upon the city of Nineveh by destroying it. That's what evil is. Well here, we're talking about not being envious of evil men, and these aren't righteous men. These are people who are looking to harm others. It says, look at verse number 2, For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. There are people out there, and look, Proverbs is a great book to illustrate this, but we need to get it through our heads, because most normal people don't even realize that these people exist, or it's not very much of a thought in their life. There are people out there that are evil people that study destruction, that are out and bent on doing harm to other people. That they, that's actually what they care about, that's actually what they conspire to do, and that's actually what they plan to do. Now look, I don't think anyone in this room is probably like that at all, and you probably never felt like that, where you're going to, I'm going to plan to do some evil to somebody else. So it's a foreign concept for us, for most normal people. But the wicked, and the wicked that we see talked about in the book of Proverbs especially, it gives all these various attributes of people who literally study destruction, and their lips talk of mischief, and that is what they're bent on doing. And there are many people in this world, and especially the people in the high power and wealth places, the Bible talks about our battle, our spiritual battle that we have. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It exists. There are people like the George Soroses of the world, and the Rothschilds, and these people that have a lot of wealth, and a lot of power, and are evil, wicked men that are looking to bring people into bondage that we need to be aware of, and we need to look out for. And it says, look, don't desire to be with them. Don't be like, oh, oh, look, there's George Soros, I'm going to get my picture taken with him. You know, we're going to get a selfie or something. Don't desire to be with them. Stay away from them. These people are wicked people. They study destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. This is a warning that the Bible is giving us about this type of a person. And we need to keep that in mind too, because like I said, it's easy to look at these verses and always kind of think of the, you know, because not all of the movie stars and rock stars are just living debauched, you know, just as these wicked lifestyles and just hedonistic and just doing whatever they want to do because it feels good. They're not necessarily all just planning on doing evil to other people, right? I mean, they're just completely lost in doing what the world has for them. But there are people out there, and I'm not saying, you know, some of them probably are these actors, probably are wicked too, but the wicked person. We've got to watch out for them and don't desire anything about them or desire even to be with them. Don't be envious of what they have. Don't be envious of their power or their position or anything like that. That's what the world has to offer. We're not of this world. Praise God. Look at verse number 8. The Bible says, he that deviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person. Now, this is a little bit of a side note, but when I was growing up, words like, I remember my grandma used to say, you know, you kids are always getting into mischief, right? Just meaning you're always getting into trouble. But there are certain words in the Bible like mischief and being a busybody is another one I heard, you know, that's common in my family for kids, oh, you're being a busybody and stuff. I don't really just throw those words around though. When you read the Bible and you see how strong they actually are being used, like being mischievous, it says if you devise to do evil, you're called a mischievous person. I don't like using these words that the Bible is using strongly and just kind of throwing them around in our vernacular, in our common language as if they don't really mean much anymore. You know, it's offensive to me if someone says that my children are busybodies because being a busybody in the Bible is not a good thing at all. It's a very wicked trait to have, especially as a woman. And you know, these are things I think we ought to be careful just how we use our words. And when we see them, especially when the Bible is using them one way and then everyone else might be using them a different way, that has an impact on how you understand the Bible also. So we need to make sure that we're doing our best to use words appropriately. But let's jump down here if you would please to verse number 19. Even though there's all these wicked people and we're not supposed to be envious of them, not the desire to be with them, verse number 19 says fret not thyself because of evil men. We don't have to worry about it and we need to be aware that they're out there. We need to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves. We don't need to just go to bed at night just saying, oh man, what's going to happen? You know, tonight everyone else is probably out watching the presidential debate and saying the world's going to end. I don't know what's going to happen. This whole debate is just going to spell everything for the country. What's going to happen? And being all worried about the evil man, worried about things going on. We don't need to fret ourselves. That's not something that we need to be so concerned with and worried about like the end of the world's coming. The end of the world is coming. I'm not worried about it one bit. Not for myself. We don't need to worry about it for other people. We don't need to fret ourselves over what's coming. Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked, for there shall be no reward to the evil man. The candle of the wicked shall be put out. And it's saying you don't have to worry about the evil man. God is the revenger. God is the one that's going to bring vengeance. We just need to realize, don't be envious of them. Don't look at what they have right now. Don't be deceived by that. When everything's said and done, God is going to make everything right and there's judgment that is coming. And we don't need to worry about it whatsoever. Don't fret yourself. Don't worry about it. God writes every single wrong. Let's jump back up here to verse number three. The Bible reads, through wisdom is a house builded and by understanding it is established and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And again, I think every single chapter in the book of Proverbs has mentioned to wisdom and knowledge and how important that is for us. And it's saying your entire house should be builded on the understanding and principles of the Bible and knowledge and getting the wisdom in your life to establish your whole household. Let's keep reading here. Verse number five. A wise man is strong, yea, a man of knowledge increase its strength. For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war and in multitude of counselors there is safety. As I was reading and studying this chapter, I think most of the chapters in Proverbs have a main theme and I think one of the bigger themes in this chapter is just that of having strength and being strong. We need strength to not one, to not have to worry about the evil doers, understand that they're there, but we need to be strong and rooted in our faith. The Bible says a wise man is strong. If you're wise, you'll have this strength. Why? Because you need to be able to resist. You need to be able to resist the influences of the world. You need to be able to resist the attacks of Satan. We need to have strength. And if you're wise, you will gain that strength. The Bible says here, a man of knowledge increases strength. For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war and in multitude of counselors there is safety. Talking to other people about issues, especially when you have big decisions to make in your life, it's a wise thing to seek out godly counsel. People who know God's word. People who know the scripture and not even just go into one person. Go to many people. Seek out godly counsel. When you have, you know, the example here is making war. Making war is not something that you just, you know, make at the toss of a coin, right? Or a flip of a hat. It's not something that's just taken lightly. When you're deciding to go out and go to battle and people are going to lose their lives and you're putting forth, you know, this big effort and it's going to cost all kinds of money and everything else, it's a big decision. You want to make sure you're being wise about those types of decisions. Now, I don't think anyone here is going to be waging war, so to speak, against anyone in particular. When you have a large decision to make in your life, hey, seek out the wise counsel. In the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Here, you know, a lot of times you're going to hear things that, oh, I didn't think about that. Someone else could bring up. Even when you don't necessarily agree with the other person, they could still bring things and it could be productive to you making a wise decision in whatever it is that you have to do. Look at verse number seven. The Bible says, wisdom is too high for a fool. He openeth not his mouth in the gates. Fools don't get this. Fools aren't going to go seeking out godly counsel. They're not going to go planning and doing that. The fools just, they don't understand wisdom at all. They are just too rash and will make their decisions without any consideration. Jump down to verse number 10. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. And again, there's a reference to strength. So what is it to faint in the day of adversity? Adversity is when there's trouble, when there's persecutions, when something is coming against you, when something is adverse to what you're doing. And what I thought of when I read this verse is the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. There's the seed that fell by the wayside, there's the seed that fell on the stony ground, and it gives the four examples. And the seed that fell in the stony places, I'll just read this for you, you don't have to turn there. Matthew 13 20 says, but he that received the seed in the stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. They receive the word of God. And I know many people teach this different, I believe that this person is saved. They received God's word because, you know, the Bible says, sir, what must I do to be saved? They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When the word of God is sown in your heart, and you receive it, you believe you're saved. Now, as is the case in reality, some people get saved, they believe, but they don't really last in church, they might come a little bit, and then they fall out, right? And in verse 21, it says, yet hath he no root in himself, but doerth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. And I've seen it happen first time, I've witnessed people who have professed faith in Jesus Christ, they got saved, they believe on with their heart, and then what happens is they start coming to church, and family members or friends catch wind of, oh, wait, what church are you going to? Oh, you go to that fundamental Baptist church? You go to that cult? Oh, you go, you know, don't you know those people? They're crazy out, you know, and they start talking in their ear. And for a new babe in Christ, that's not founded, that doesn't have their root down deep into God's Word, it's a lot easier for them to fall, to go off and faint in the day of adversity. They don't faint because they're not saved, they faint because they don't have strength, because their strength is small. We need to make sure that we're firmly rooted. And I love, you know, this illustration that Jesus Christ gave of the seed, you know, you think about a tree, the great big branches, man, those things are heavy. I chop down a smaller tree in my backyard, and you got to get those into smaller logs just to be able to, you know, lift in those little tiny portions of tree, it takes a lot of effort, man. Those things, I don't even know how much those weigh, they weigh a lot. So to support that type of weight, you know, the wind's blowing, you got storms coming through. How does it not fall over? It doesn't fall over because of the roots, the big, massive root structure dug down deep into the earth. That's keeping that solid, keeping that tree just firm, in place, not movable. That's the way that we need to be in our Christian life. We need to dig down. How are we going to do that? You need to dig down into God's Word, into this truth. You need to know what these doctrines say so that when someone comes at you trying to knock you off balance, trying to throw you off and say, you know, throw some lies at you, or throw some slander at you, or whatever, you could say, no, no, no, I know what the Bible says. That's not going to, you know, when someone comes at you with James Tuesday, well, faith without works is dead. You've not rooted down. If you're not solid in doctrine, you can say, no, no, you know, even if you have the best understanding of every scripture, you could be like, well, no, John 3 16, John 3 18, John 3 36, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, you know, like, what about all these verses, Romans 4, 4, Romans 4, 5, you know, you just go through the list, you start thinking about all this stuff in your head, you need to be rooted and founded to say, when someone comes at you with some false doctrine, it's not going to shake you, not going to rally, it's not going to rally your faith. Someone comes at you with evolution or some other, you know, nonsense that's going to try to shake your faith in God's Word. You need to be rooted down in what this book says. If you faint, when the trouble comes, you don't have strength. We need to make sure we're all gaining strength. Proverbs 24, look at verse number 9, the Bible reads, the thought of foolishness is sin and the scorn or is an abomination to men. This is a verse you might want to make note of, you might want to highlight in your Bible. It's not very often, but sometimes you run into these holiness people out soul winning that like to think that they're without sin. I remember once when we were soul winning in Gilbert before I moved up here, ran into the house and there's a lady there who's just saying that, yeah, I haven't sinned in, oh, I don't know, probably some months or maybe a year. Really? I'll tell you what, the people that say they haven't sinned in that long time, you know where the bar is? It's way down here. You say, well, I haven't gotten drunk, I haven't killed anybody or I haven't stolen anything. Okay, yeah. When you set the bar down just really low, you could make that mark, right? But when you take the bar of God's Word and you look at a verse like this in Proverbs 24 and 9, the thought of foolishness is sin. So you mean to tell me you haven't had a foolish thought in over a year? I like to see someone make that claim, I'll call you a liar. We have a lot of thoughts that run through our head, okay? And the thought is something that's probably one of the hardest things in your whole life to have complete control over. I mean, it really is. And to not have a foolish thought, you're a liar. The thought of foolishness is sin, according to the Bible, and this should just humble us and keep us in check so that we don't get too lifted up and full of ourselves, thinking that we're so holy and righteous, we're sinners. Praise God for His grace and His mercy and His salvation. The thought of foolishness is sin. Remember that, too. I mean, the thought life is very important. You know why? Because you may not be doing something right now, but if you have a bad thought life, you know what's going to lead to? You doing something. Your actions are followed from your thoughts. You start thinking about things first. You know, the guy that commits adultery on his wife? You know he thought about it before he actually went through and committed the act himself. All these things start up here. You need to keep that in check. And don't think, oh, I didn't actually do anything. It's not a sin. Yes, it is a sin. Jesus Christ Himself said if you look on a woman and lust after her in your heart, that you've committed adultery with her already in your heart. That's the teaching that He gave. Let's keep reading. Jump down to verse number 11. The Bible says, If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain, if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it, and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it, and shall not he render to every man according to his works. Now I want you to keep your finger here. Keep your place in Proverbs 24 and turn if you would to Ezekiel chapter 33. What's this saying? It's saying, look, if you withhold, if there's someone that's being drawn unto death, if there's someone, and in the context, I believe it's talking about someone being unrightfully being drawn unto death. It's not talking about someone being executed for committing murder or something. This is talking about people being delivered unto death. You see it happening. You see someone just ready to be put to death, ready to be killed, ready to be murdered, and you pretend like you didn't see it. Oh, I'm not going to deal with that. There's this big problem here, and I'm not going to deal with that at all. He's saying, you're going to make that excuse, but doth he that pondereth the heart consider it, like it says, he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it, God knows. You might be able to get away with that excuse with your brothers and sisters in Christ, but God's going to know your heart. It says, and shall not he render to every man according to his works. You see, we've been given a job and a responsibility. Every born-again believer has a responsibility to be a watchman, to go out and warn the people that are unsaved, warn this unsaved world of the wrath to come. That is a job that's been given to us, and if you're in Ezekiel 33, we're going to read a little bit about that in verse number 1, the Bible reads, again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchman, if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning, his blood shall be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou does not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. And he's given an illustration here in Ezekiel 33 of a watchman of someone who is set up, whose job it is to watch and protect the city, right? They'd be up on the city walls, they're looking out, they're looking far and wide to see just be diligent, looking for the enemy to come and attack them. Because they need time to prepare for the enemy's coming to sneak attack on them. There needs to be a watchman looking out at all times. That's why there's a watch going all day and night to keep the safety of the city. And if you have a watchman, and he says the watchman does his job, he sees the enemy coming, he rings the bell, he sounds the alarm, he lets everyone know, hey, the enemy is coming. He did his job right. Everyone's been warned. And if the person's been warned, and they say, yeah, yeah, whatever, what do you know, and they blow it off or whatever, hey, that's their business at that point. You know, if they end up dying in the battle, they get killed, they get taken away. That's their own fault. They didn't take heed. And he's saying, but the watchman did his job, he did what he was supposed to do. But if the watchman, you know, sleeping on the job, not paying attention, sees the enemy, yeah, I got a sore throat. I don't want to make a ruckus about it. I don't want to upset people. It's the middle of the night. I'm going to let them get their sleep. We could deal with this later. And then they come upon them and come in and destroy and a whole bunch of people die to take away. Because you know what? They have their own sins, you know, that happened, but I'm going to hold the watchman responsible for that. That was his job. And the way that we apply that to us is that God has given us a commandment. He has given us a duty. He has given us an office of being an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was on this earth some 2000 years ago, and he performed a ministry, and then he gave the responsibility of preaching the gospel to every creature, to us, to his disciples, to his believers, to people who are going to come after him. We need to reconcile people to God in Christ's stead. That's what the Bible says is our job. We are watchmen. There are many people out there that don't realize that hell is coming. There's a lot of people that mock at it, but there's some people that don't even know. There's a lot of people that have never even heard, and look, you might think this is crazy, but even in the United States of America, I've talked to younger kids in their teens that have never heard about Jesus, never heard about his death, his burial, his resurrection from the dead. The first time I heard that I was talking to a kid, it blew my mind. How could you be living in the United States of America and have never heard about this? Never heard of it. Didn't know it. There's people that have never heard. You don't know who they are. It's our job to warn. It's our job. And look, maybe they heard from someone else, but we need to tell them again. Because obviously they didn't take heed to that warning. We need to be going out and making sure we are doing this job. And look, in Proverbs, it said that shall not he rendered every man according to his works. In Ezekiel, talk about the watchman, he said, you know what, but his blood I'm going to require at the watchman's hands. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. We're going to see this in the New Testament, do you think, but those are all in the Old Testament. Well, see it and see the Apostle Paul. Same concept that's given unto us to warn people. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, we're going to look at verse number 16, it reads, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Necessity means it's necessary. He has to do it. Necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. He's saying, it's been committed to me. This is something that I need to do. He's saying, woe unto me if I don't preach the gospel. So this is all I need to do. If I do it willingly, God's going to reward me. Amen. Praise God for that. For his goodness, he doesn't have to do that, but he knows what he's going to. He says that against my will, well, this is my obligation, this is my duty. Every born again believer, it's your obligation to warn other people to preach the gospel. This is something we need to do. Now, there's many reasons to preach the gospel, right? We should be preaching it for all kinds of reasons. None of them are bad reasons. I don't think any of them are bad reasons. One of them is, you know, we ought to love people. We ought to love just your average person out on the street, ought to care about them. Care about them enough to tell them the truth, tell them what Jesus did for them. Explain the state that they're in if they're not saved and show them out against, hey, we ought to care about them enough. We ought to love God enough. I mean, if God loved the world enough to send his only begotten Son to come and die on the cross and shed his blood and pay the price for the sins of the whole world, we should be telling the whole world about it and not minimizing it and saying, oh, well, he saved me, that's good enough. Love God enough to get the message out there. Do it for the rewards. Hey, don't lay up treasures here upon earth where moth and rust are corrupt. Lay up those treasures in heaven where moth and rust don't corrupt, where thieves don't break through and steal. That's another good incentive to go out and win souls. You're going to get rewarded for that. And also remember, hey, this has been committed, this is our job. The person that, you know, you got the Holy Spirit kind of working in you and you see someone walking and you say, you know, you just got that urge, you know, I should give that person the gospel. Man, I should really, you know, I bet that person needs to get saved. And you just kind of look the other way and pretend like you didn't see that person. I think that's what we're talking about here. Definitely applicable. We need to make sure that we're not quenching that Spirit. We're going with God's leading. And because, look, God knows our thought. You know, you could try to lie, deceive yourself, deceive other people, but you're not going to deceive God. When you think about it, it's our job. This isn't just something, you know, we're a soul winning church and this isn't something that's just for certain people. Well, soul winning is just for, you know, those people that come to all the services and they're, you know, that's for them. I only come once in a while, you know, it's not for me, you know, I'll let them do that. No, it's for you too. It's for everybody. It's for all of us. We don't have just some select group and just, you know, that's who's the soul winner. You know, it should be everybody. Would to God that all of His people would be prophets. Let's go back to Proverbs 24, please. Proverbs 24, we're going to, let's see here. Verse number 13, Paul reads, my son, eat thou honey because it is good in the honeycomb which is sweet to thy taste. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul. When thou has found it, then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off. Excuse me, likening, you know, taste of honey, real sweet, real great to the mouth with wisdom and that's something that we ought to be viewing wisdom as that sweet to our soul. Something that's going to literally provide us life and direction and joy and happiness by receiving this wisdom. Just as much as you like to take that bit of honey in your mouth because it tastes so good, we ought to view wisdom the same way because that's the same type of benefit you'll receive unto your soul. Verse number 15, lay not wait, oh wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous. Spoil not his resting place for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Don't let this world get you down. You know, the Bible said earlier in this chapter that if you're, you know, you faint in the day of adversity that you don't have a lot of strength. But let's say that happens to you. Let's say you find yourself and say, you know, I was weak and I fainted a day of adversity. Get back up again. The Bible says that a just man falls seven times. But what is, what is the, what does he do? He keeps getting up again. Get back up again. You know, one of the worst things that people can do when they get into sin. They backslide a little bit. I've seen it happen way too many times. People get involved in some kind of a sin and they say, man, I can't go to church anymore because they screwed up. They did something wicked. Maybe they go out and get drunk. Maybe they go out and, you know, fornicate, maybe they do something and say, you know, I'm just gonna get out of church because I just can't deal with this. That is the worst thing for you to do. Okay. You realize what you did is wrong. You need to get up. You need to repent. You need to get back into church. You need to get back doing what's right because when you stop doing what's right, when you let yourself be defeated, when you let, then you've let Satan win. You let yourself be overcome by the things of this world, then you just stay down instead of getting back up again. Get back up in the saddle. Get back up and get back in the fight. There may be times when you stumble. There may be times when you fall. But what you gotta be doing is getting back up again. Don't worry about the wicked people that are attacking you because this is, you know, in this instance, it's a warning against a wicked person, hey, don't mess with God's people. Don't mess with the righteous. You better watch out. The righteous man isn't gonna come back and get you. It's gonna be way worse than that. God's gonna come back and He's gonna bring vengeance and you're not gonna like that. We need to keep that in mind too whenever you're tempted to bring your own vengeance upon somebody. You don't need to worry about that. Whatever you can do to that person anyway is nothing compared to what God will make sure everything is right. And you know what? He'll make sure it's done rightly. What we might do, you might overstep your bounds and do something a little bit too harsh. You bring, you know, you try to take vengeance on your own. Or you might not bring the proper recompense either, you know, either way. Let's let God do that. He knows all about it. He's good at that. We could just remember our own mercies that we've received when you want to bring vengeance upon someone else. God will deal with that. Look at verse number 17. Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turneth away his wrath from him. Again, this is talking about, you know, taking matters into your own hands and getting happy about it. And I'm going to go, I don't want to spend any time on this this week, I'm actually going to go over it. There's a couple more verses in chapter 25 that we're going to cover and I'm going to bring these verses in and really expound on that. And I'm forcing myself not to go into it now because this is going to be a great topic for next week. Those two verses alone are very, very critical today. But we're going to tie it in for chapter 25. So I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 21. Proverbs 24, 21, my son, fear thou the Lord and the king, and meddle not with them that are given to change. For their calamity shall rise suddenly, and who knoweth the ruin of them both? These things also belong to the wise, it is not good to have respect of persons in judgment. He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous, him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him. But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon him. Now these verses apply so well, I believe, to our political climate these days and what's going on today. The Bible says meddle not with them that are given to change. Don't mess with them. And who is more given to change than a politician in this world? The people that we have in Washington these days, they'll say anything to their benefit. If they think they could get 51% of the people behind them, whatever they have to do, they'll say anything. They meddle with change. You look at Hillary Clinton. Look at all the flip-flops and all the changes and you know, why? She's got no principles. She's got no morals. She doesn't care about, she just cares about herself. She cares about her power. She cares about her wickedness. She's the one devising all this evil. And you know what? Don't think that just because I'm railing on Hillary Clinton right now that it's any better for Donald Trump. There's another one that's given to change. There's another wicked man. There's another man who owns these casinos and strip clubs and brags about his adulterous affairs. He's not a righteous man. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He was a Democrat just however many years ago. And now he's a Republican. Meddle now with them that are given to change. That's not our battle anyways. Show me in the Bible where, you know, the Apostle Paul says, we need to elect so and so because they're going to bring our country back. He didn't have time for that. He was out doing God's work. We don't need to invest all of our time and energy and efforts into some wicked, corrupt man or woman that's going to, you know, lead this country faster into hell. That's not where the solution comes from, my friends. You say, well, what is the answer? You have people saying, well, what are we supposed to do then? You're supposed to get, you know, warn the wicked from the wicked ways. We're supposed to go out. If you invested as much time, you know, so many people invest in politics and everything else. If you can take that time that you're investing and start investing it and changing minds and hearts locally, the people that you can reach, and other Christians actually were doing the same thing, we would, you know, the politics would be reflected from the people because that's what's happening right now. Our politics is just a reflection of the sinful state that this country is in, the moral decay that we have sunk to. I mean, when you've got the sodomites marching up and down the street and everyone's just fine with that, and they're going to shut down churches now if you don't marry these fags and these queers, and they're going to, you know, the whole world is against you, and it's become just this normal thing these days. And people are going to say, oh, you got hate speech, we're going to throw you in prison. God help us. It's no wonder why we have these people that are our choices for the president. It's no wonder when you allow the filth and the perversion that all the nations before the children of Israel went into had done and were wiped out and destroyed and judged by God. The Amorites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Jebusites. Go back and read those books and you read God's laws, and when God gives Moses those laws and he tells them, hey, if you commit adultery, that's a death penalty. Hey, if a man lies with mankind, is he lies with a woman, death penalty. If a man lies with a beast, death penalty. He says, these are the laws. This is righteous judgment. This is what you ought to do. And why am I even telling you all this stuff? Because all the people that were here before you, they did all of these things. Go read the Bible. Read the book of Leviticus. They did all of those things. That's why the judgment came. And see, so many people, they say, well, wait, you know, God's so mean and so, you know, how could he have brought, you know, killed, you know, told them that because what they did, what they were commanded to do, when they went into the nation of Israel that became theirs, they were to wipe out all of them. Old, young, you know, mothers, you know, everybody. Just wipe them out. Why? Not because God's a meanie. It's because he's bringing judgment upon them. It was a just recompense from their wicked, wicked, wicked, just like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah. He rained fire and brimstone down on every single inhabitant of that cities, of those cities and just saved Lot and his family out. Why? Because their deeds were so wicked. Metal knot with them that are given to change. It's not good to have respect of persons in judgment. Oh, but he's a celebrity. Oh, he made a lot of money. Don't let that cloud your judgment over his moral character, over who he is as a person. Don't let that cloud your judgment. I don't care how much money he made. Is he an adulterer? That's not someone that I think is qualified to be in charge of anything, any facet of making rules over people when you have that type of integrity or moral character that you're committing such horrible sins like that. Verse 24, He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous. God help us when the churches are saying that any of these politicians are righteous. You say they're righteous, the wicked people. Him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him. But to them that rebuke him shall be delight and a good blessing shall come upon him. Turn, if you want, to Deuteronomy chapter number four. I think one of the reasons why the United States of America is hated so much across the world, it's not because of our freedom. It's because of the perception that we have these wicked people that are going and starting wars all over the world, bombing places and drone striking where there's tons of civilian casualties, tons of people that didn't do anything, getting blown up and going on these wars of dominion, really is what it is, that have nothing to do with us, nothing to do with our well-being, nothing to do with our safety, even though that's what you're told by the tell-lie vision. We have wicked people in charge, but when they're called righteous, people hate that. The average person could see through it and realize, especially when the stuff's happening to them, and you're going to turn around and call them righteous, you're going to be abhorred. But them that rebuke him shall be delight. enemy chapter 4, verse number 5, Moses explains this perfectly, he said, Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do so in the land whether you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations. This law that they've been given, he says, is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of everyone else. The other nations are going to see this, it says, Which shall hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? We have God's laws written in our hearts. When you see a nation promoting those same laws, you're going to look at that and say, wow, they have wisdom. Yeah, that seems right. Yeah, that actually is a righteous recompense for the reward. That is a great punishment for the crime. He's saying if you do this, if you follow my laws, if you put these into effect, if you put this into place, all the other countries are going to look around and be like, they got it put together. They got it right. They've got a lot of wisdom. They're dealing with these criminals right. As opposed to these days when the pedophile gets turned loose after like two or three years. They get a slap on the wrist for defiling a child. They need a bullet in their head and we're sending them back out to go and defile more children and people want to call that righteous judgment. It's crazy. No, a righteous nation is going to follow and be patterned after what God has declared to be righteous judgment. That's the way that our laws ought to be. And just one last thing on the whole election thing, and I just need to get this off my chest so you disagree with me, that's fine. But I'm sick and tired of the people that will tell me, because I'm not voting for Donald Trump. I'm not voting for Hillary Clinton. But the people that say, oh if you don't vote for Donald Trump, then you're voting for Hillary Clinton. No I'm not. No actually, I'm not. I'm not voting for him. When you vote for somebody, you're choosing them. It's called an election. Now we know who God's elect was, right? Jesus Christ is referred to as God's elect. He's the chosen one. Hey, that's a good example of someone who should be elect. We're elect if we have Christ in us. We have an election through Christ, but what is it? You're choosing someone. I don't care what anybody else does. I'm not going to base my decisions on what everybody else does. If I'm going to choose somebody and say, this is my choice, I think this is the best person, that's my choice. I'm not choosing anyone else. That's your fault. That's their fault. If you say, if the whole election was decided because I didn't vote for, if Donald Trump loses and Hillary Clinton wins, you know what? I don't want Donald Trump. I'm not choosing him. He's a wicked man. I don't want him in that position. I don't want Hillary over that position either. I don't want any of them. They're all wicked. But when you vote, you're choosing somebody. And when you're voting for evil, you're voting for evil. I don't care if one's more evil than the other. You're still voting for evil. And I'm not going to be a part, I'm not going to participate in that. I'm not going to put my name, even though no one else sees it, it's an anonymous vote. God sees where I'm putting my name. I'm not going to put my name on any wicked person. They shall not tarry in my sight. I'm not going to meddle with them that are given the change. And all the people that want to vote for those people, hey, when, when, troubleless times come, you know, and Donald Trump himself is the one that stated that he's going to be way better for the LGBTQ community than Hillary Clinton ever will be. That's not the person I want in charge. I don't want the sodomites getting any more access and any more, you know, of their wicked filth just pushed on us more than it already has been. I'm not going to endorse that. Not for a second. I'm going to keep my integrity. I'm not going to endorse evil. You do what you want to do. You know, I'm not, I'm literally not telling you what to do. I don't care what you do. It doesn't matter to me. I just don't think that the politics matter at all. I mean, our country is already going down the toilet. We need to be focused on our job. And I've shared this with many people, you know, before when I started getting right with God and I got into a good church, I got into a good, solid church, I was really interested in politics. I was considering running, I was being a, you know, a precinct committee man for my area. I was, I was thinking about getting, you know, moving up the ranks and, and getting involved and say, well, you know, I've got these good values and I've got this, you know, I've got this good faith and if I could bring that into our government, hey, I'd be doing a lot, I'd be accomplishing a lot. And I started going to the, to the Republican meetings and doing all this stuff and getting involved and getting involved with the libertarians and getting involved with all this, you know, the things that I believed in politically at the time. And I realized, first of all, the whole thing is rigged. You start getting involved, you start getting to know people, it's a, you know, the people on the inside, it's a machine. That's the only way you're going to get anywhere and get anything done and it's all starts from the, even the low levels with just compromising, compromising your values, compromising your values. You're going to get anything done. And I, and then I realized the more I actually got right with God and was doing soul winning and stuff, you want to reach people, get to their hearts and get to their souls. I'm not going to invest my time, you know, campaigning and trying to get into politics and think that that's going to be my great realm of influence. No, your great realm of influence is going to be preaching the Word of God to people. And doing it. Don't just say it. Don't say, well, that's what I do and then you don't do anything. No, take it up and do it. That's the only way we're going to get real change anyways. You can't fix the whole world. Let's fix our area. Let's reach the people here and bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ and get them living righteously. Get them planted in here. That's our, that's going to be the best use of your time. God's not giving rewards for how politically involved you were in this world. Not at all. He's giving you rewards for the work that actually has eternal value. Let's finish up this chapter here, Proverbs 24, look at verse number 26. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer. People love the truth. People respect the truth. You can hear it and understand when someone, you know, and honestly, just a last comment on a political thing. I'm not saying that everything that Donald Trump says is true by any means. But one of the reasons why he's even gained popularity is because he's not acting like a politician. He's saying some things that people are just like, finally, someone who's not just going to be politically correct and just have to censor every single thing that they say. People want to hear what you really believe. And he seems genuine to me. I don't, I mean, I don't know that much about, I know he's wicked, but like, he seems genuine in what he's doing. I don't know. But people like that. People want someone who's going to be real with them, want someone who's going to be genuine with them. And when you bring people the truth, you know, they'll recognize it. Every man shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer. Proverbs verse 28, be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause and deceive not with thy lips. If not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me, I will render to the man according to his work. Again, taking judgment in your own hands. Verse 27, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house. And then we're going to read through Proverbs 30 verse 34 at the end of the chapter there, because this is all talking about not being lazy and being a hard worker and where your priorities ought to be as a Christian man or woman. Verse number 30, I went by the field of the slothful, slothful means someone who's lazy, the sluggard, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. So the person who's lazy is also someone who doesn't have understanding, they don't have any wisdom, they're stupid. Verse 31, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles had covered the faces thereof. And the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands asleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy want as an armed man. And if things don't happen overnight, you start letting things go, you know, you say, oh, I'm just going to take a little nap, oh, I'm just going to get a little sleep, oh, I'm just going to, you know, oh, I don't want to work, oh, I'm going to put this off, oh, I don't want to, you know, that I'm too tired, oh, I can't go out and do that. And that's when everything just starts to crumble. Everything's going to fall apart. You know, the thorns are growing over it, the rocks falling down, everything is in shambles. Why? Because you're not working. In verse 27, I kind of skipped past that, but I really want to spend a little bit of time and prepare thy work without. You're saying, get ready, get out, get out of the house, get your work all ready to do out in the field, out in the job, out in the workplace, make it fit for thyself in the field. After you've done all that, after you've done your work, after you've gone out and worked hard, then come home and build your house. Say, worry about your work first, and then come home and worry about building the structures and getting that all in place, the place where you're going to rest. Get the work done. We need a good work ethic, and you know, anybody who's going to call themselves a Christian, you know, it's a bad testimony to call yourself a follower of Jesus and not to be a hard worker. We ought to be hard, we ought to be diligent to be getting up, go out, do our job, and not letting everything fall apart around us, and not just saying, oh, I just want to take a nap. Little sleep, little slumber, oh, no big deal, becomes a pattern. That's why you're going to be poor, and look, there's nothing wrong with not having a lot of money. The Bible says you're not supposed to be going after riches. But if you're a hard worker, you're going to be taken care of, and it's as simple as that. I mean, anybody who can do some hard work can earn a living, can earn wages to sustain yourself and to have a, you know, even if it's just a meager income, a meek income, that's fine. But you've got to be a hard worker. It's about right to have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for these great words of instruction. Dear Lord, I pray that you would please continue to work in our hearts and our lives, dear Lord. Lighten up our path before us through your word, dear God. Help us to understand it, help us to take the applications that we could make from your word to heart, dear Lord. Help us to just, you know, mainly let's stay focused on the things that really, really matter, like people's souls being saved, dear God. Help us to focus on those things and not to be distracted with all of the things going on around us, dear Lord. Help us to be strengthened, Lord, strengthen our faith tonight, strengthen our faith daily, dear God. Help us to get rooted down into your word and that we wouldn't be shaken in mind or we won't fret about the evildoers and the wickedness that's coming in this country and the judgment that's coming, dear God. Help us not to be, you know, petrified and scared and let that terrify us into not doing something. Let us not even worry about it, dear Lord. Let us just worry about us doing right and we know that you are capable of saving, even as you did with Lot, you saved him from your wrath, dear Lord, and saved him out of destruction. And if we're doing what's right, we know that you could, you can keep us from your judgment also, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.